Through the Festive Looking Glass

New Year

Seeing in the New Year in many parts of the World has a great magical significance, and different societies perform many different rituals. The custom of ringing the New Year in on church bells dates back many centuries; together with the singing, and shouting at midnight which is an echo of the time when shouting, and the loud ringing of bells was believed to drive off evil spirits, demons, and the like.

There are many customs involving fire to mark the New Year. The fishermen of Burghead, a small fishing village on the Moray Firth, Scotland UK have a custom called “Burning the Clavie”, with which they burn the New Year in. The Clavie is a tar filled barrel. First the tar is set alight in the barrel, and carried up a hill called Doorie Hill. As it is being transported up the hill to the top men throw blazing brands of wood into houses for luck. At the top of the hill the Clavie is set down upon a large stone, and a bonfire is built around it. Very soon the barrel splits open, and as the molten tar runs down the hill there is a mad scramble for the blazing barrel pieces. They are regarded as lucky charms which can ward off evil spirits.

Further afield up in the Shetland Isles, just 400 miles South of the Arctic Circle, they have a festival in January called “Uphellya”. It began when Norsemen ruled the Shetlands, and had many festivals to welcome the Sun. In the 19th century it was decided to hold a yearly procession, and to this day a replica of a great Viking long ship is pulled through the streets of Lerwick at night followed by hundreds of torch bearers. Men dressed in Viking mail armour with winged helmets ride inside the ship. Reaching their destination in a field out of town the crew leave, and everyone sings the “Galley Song”. A bugle is sounded, and all the torches are thrown into the ship. The wooden built ship burns fiercely, and flames leap high into the night sky, which can be seen for miles.

Middle Ages

Christmas celebrations in England during the middle ages were held from the Eve of Christmas until Epiphany (January 6) or later. The “Lord of Misrule” was in charge of all celebrations in the great halls of the lords, and it was he who announced the grand Christmas Feast, which always included a boars head. The halls were decorated with holly, and so began the feasting, dancing, and singing with plays, and shows going on amidst the celebrations. The Puritans under Oliver Cromwell put a stop to it all in the 17th century, but not entirely. Slowly, but surely, year by year pagan customs have crept back into our lives, and at no time more obvious than at Christmas time.

Today, many traditions, gross feasting, and celebrations throughout Christmas and New Year somehow seem to mirror the past. Could this mean that the New Year’s Eve midnight revelries of today in cities all over our World, reflect in some distant future celebrations on some remote planet?

The answer is probably yes, and no doubt very much distorted.